Halloween

I really enjoyed seeing this on the big screen again, 40-odd years after John Carpenter introduced us to his brand of slasher-horror with Jamie Lee Curtis great as the flighty young girl "Laurie" who finds herself caught up in the revenge antics of the faceless "Michael Myers" that perhaps only Donald Pleasence ("Loomis") can save her from. The pace and tension build really well - helped by some good use of sound and light (I didn't much care for the over-synthesised score), the supporting screams from PJ Soles and Nancy Kyes and the occasional intervention from Pleasence. The sequels never reached the heights of this, original psychological horror - there are precious few special effect to laugh at or even speak of, really - and if you get a chance to catch up with it as intended on 35mm then you should certainly give it a go.

It really doesn't look like Illinois does it? Sorry, just had to say that, it's where I'm from and all... ...but still, leaves on the ground and green leaves in the trees. Not at all Illinois, probably because it was a low budget film, but it works. It gives it a very, I don't know, Nightmare on Elm Street surreal feel? And I think, if memory serves this is the start of the virgins survive sex is punished horror-slasher staple. Anyway, it's one of my oldest and dearest friends favorite slasher films and I can see why. It is most atmospheric. It is the one that has the most paranoid and bone chilling feel to it. It really is the ultimate slasher film, it's even better than my favorite...but that's neither here nor there. The fact is, this is the film that defines the slasher genre of horror and has often been imitated but has yet to be replicated. It is, in short, a masterpiece in...

The Boogeyman cometh A soulless killer, Michael Myers, escapes from the asylum and returns to the Illinois town where he murdered his sister 15 years earlier to wreak havoc on Halloween night. Donald Pleasence is on hand as Myers’ seriously concerned doctor. John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978) is hailed as the progenitor and blueprint for the slasher craze of the 80s with staples like the unstoppable masked killer, fake scares, the final girl and the undead dead. Of course, “Halloween” was influenced by earlier slashers or quasi-slashers, like “Psycho” (1960), “Dementia 13” (1963), “A Bay of Blood” (1971) “Torso (1973), “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) and “Black Christmas” (1974). “Friday the 13th” (1980) and its sequels took the “Halloween” template and added other elements, like the summer camp setting and a devolving supernatural killer. Whilst I prefer the “Friday” films,...

Halloween's a classic movie. No doubt about it. One of the seminal films of the slasher genre, and a more-than-worthy inclusion to any Halloween season horror movie marathon. But I think people give it a reputation in terms of quality that it doesn't fully deserve. The opening ten minutes, and the closing ten minutes, are both brilliant. But everything in between? It's kind of... Somehow, both boring and annoying. The kills are good if that's your sort of thing, but everything in the meat of Halloween is old hat. Now of course it wasn't at the time, but when I've spent my formative years watching other movies doing it better (and acting it better), it doesn't really matter who did it first. Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.